Can you understand very large numbers in American English? Test your listening comprehension of numbers from 5 digits (10,000) to 9 digits (999,999,999) with the video below. It is in slow English. Understanding English numbers can be very difficult, even if you English is fairly advanced. It’s especially true for very large numbers with many digits.
Before you try the listening test, check that you have the vocabulary. You need to be able to understand numbers like these when you hear them:
- 19,493 (5 digits) – nineteen thousand four hundred and ninety-three
- 479,882 (6 digits) – four hundred and seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and eighty-two
- 6,833,002 (7 digits) – six million eight hundred and thirty-three thousand and two
- 42,550,620 (8 digits) – forty-two million five hundred and fifty-thousand six hundred and twenty
- 305,211,429 (9 digits) – three hundred and five million two hundred and eleven thousand four hundred and twenty-nine
Note that in American English, speakers often use the word and before the final number. I do this in the listening example, because it is my normal American English dialect. But it is OK to leave out the and when you are speaking.
You can read more about writing and saying very large numbers in English on Wikipedia.